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Bitcoin
may be more popular -- and pricey -- than ever before, but its
entrepreneurial ecosystem is still a work in progress. Now Plug
and Play Tech Center, which has three locations in Silicon Valley
and which was a seed investor in PayPal, has announced the
opening of an accelerator program exclusively for Bitcoin-related
startups.

The program, which is set to induct its first class of 10
startups in January 2014, will last for three months, with the
option of extending a startup's stay to six months if it needs
the extra time. The accelerator will be located in Sunnyvale,
Calif., where Plug and Play Tech Center has its headquarters.

Each participating startup will receive a $25,000 seed investment
in exchange for a 5 percent equity stake, Saeed Amidi, the
founder and chief executive of Plug and Play Tech Center, tells
Entrepreneur.com. "In special cases, we can go up to $100,000,"
he says.

In December, Plug and Play Tech Center will hold an expo focusing
on financial technology and digital currencies. This will serve
as a sort of prelude to the Bitcoin accelerator, which will begin
accepting applications once the expo concludes.

The seven-year-old Plug and Play Tech Center is no stranger to
startup investment; in the course of more than half a decade, it
has accelerated 1,500 early-stage companies, by Amidi's
reckoning. It also hosts a weekly Bitcoin meetup that is the
largest in Silicon Valley.

So why is now the right time to put investment dollars into the
Bitcoin space? "We've been following Bitcoin for two years, and
we still have not totally figured it out yet," Amidi admits. "But
nevertheless we think there is so much traction and so much
interest [in the marketplace] that we want to be involved."

The value of a single bitcoin is now about $420, an all-time high
that would have been inconceivable a few weeks ago. As reported
previously, this stratospheric price has a lot to do with
increased interest from China. Indeed, Scott Robinson, who will
be heading Plug and Play Bitcoin, was unavailable to speak with
Entrepreneur.com, as he is currently attending Asia's first
Bitcoin conference, Bitcoin Singapore.

"We've pulled together a great community of Bitcoin users,
enthusiasts, investors and entrepreneurs, so we feel as though we
have a good understanding of the players in the space and the
trends we're witnessing from hardware to regulation to new
disruptive payment solutions," Robinson said in a statement.

In addition, Plug and Play Tech Center intends to invest in five
more Bitcoin startups outside of the accelerator program. It will
invest in two or three before the end of 2013, Amidi says.

Amidi has no doubt that Bitcoin is more than a passing fad. "I
think it will go through some ups and downs, but it's going to
stay around for a long time," he says. "But how big it's going to
be, I don't know."